My situation, be a KJD or Work for some years? Forum

[yfang12]

So i am going to be a senior in the fall. And here are 2 options in front of me and i need to decided quick because one of the option has a due day in 2 month.

I am a public policy major and a political science minor, I am 21 years old right now, will be 3 month over 22 when i graduate college.

During the past 3 years, I took the advantage of our school's forgiveness program and retook a about 6 classes, there are 3 of them are F's and 2 of them are D's for the first time, dont ask me why, I was a 17 years freshman. But i got A's and B's for the second time so my GPA looks ok on my transcript.

I just found out that LSAC count both grades in, so my GPA took a big hit from 3.4 to a 2.9.
I still have about 9 classes left (Summer and Fall) before i apply to law school so I might get a 3.1 for the best, and my LSAT PT is around 168.

But since my school GPA is not so bad and i would be 3.5+ after next semester and i have done a lot of volunteers with children for the past 5 years I am given the chance to pursue a 1 year master in teaching in my filed of study (Social studies) with scholarship in a top 30 national ranking university. But if i took the chance I will be obligated to work for the school district for 2 years upon graduation as a full time paid secondary school teacher. (Is the scholarship condition).

So which option should i take ?

1. Go ahead with the GPA and LSAT go to Law school as KJD and graduate at age of 25
2. Go do the master program and work for 2 years then apply with a better GPA (Because i would have all my undergraduate study grades out by the time) and probably better LSAT, but i will be 28 when i graduate.

Being a lawyer is always something i want to do and big law is my goal eventually.

Maybe is just my weird family they think already too old to go to law school (Since the plan was to go at age of 21, but i took a medical leave during second year college), I just need some honest advice and some good reason. I am super struggled and confused right now.

[Elston Gunn]

There is nothing old about graduating from law school at 28. That's totally normal.

[pancakes3]

Your family is wrong. Do the MEd.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Your family is wrong. Do the MEd.

[shump92]

I would recommend you do the teaching program to have some work experience before going to law school. You could go ahead and take the LSAT now since your PT average is pretty good but I would not recommend applying to law schools yet. If you have big goals for law, you want to go to the most prestigious schools possible (at least the level of well respected regional schools like UCLA or Vanderbilt). But for most of those schools your actual GPA is pretty low so the LSAC GPA drop is even more notable and if you actually hit your PT average on test day (which is not guaranteed) then you would be right around the LSAT median for a lot of them. I'm guessing you would not qualify as URM so the main boosts for your application would be work experience and good letters of recommendation. "Big law" basically requires you to go to the types of schools I described if not T14 and honestly you would be fairly lucky to have any of those schools as options and you would almost certainly be paying the full cost of attendance. For your personal statement, you are probably going to want to work on your grammar some since a certain type of writing will be expected. At the end of the day you have to make the choices that you are comfortable with, not what your parents tell you to do, or even what TLS might recommend you do. But my advice is to do the program to have some work experience, secure a good rec letter from your current school and get another one from your future employer. Then think about why you can be a compelling candidate to offset your low GPA for law school.

[FloridaCoastalorbust]

under no circumstances go to law school.

[yfang12]

I would recommend you do the teaching program to have some work experience before going to law school. You could go ahead and take the LSAT now since your PT average is pretty good but I would not recommend applying to law schools yet. If you have big goals for law, you want to go to the most prestigious schools possible (at least the level of well respected regional schools like UCLA or Vanderbilt). But for most of those schools your actual GPA is pretty low so the LSAC GPA drop is even more notable and if you actually hit your PT average on test day (which is not guaranteed) then you would be right around the LSAT median for a lot of them. I'm guessing you would not qualify as URM so the main boosts for your application would be work experience and good letters of recommendation. "Big law" basically requires you to go to the types of schools I described if not T14 and honestly you would be fairly lucky to have any of those schools as options and you would almost certainly be paying the full cost of attendance. For your personal statement, you are probably going to want to work on your grammar some since a certain type of writing will be expected. At the end of the day you have to make the choices that you are comfortable with, not what your parents tell you to do, or even what TLS might recommend you do. But my advice is to do the program to have some work experience, secure a good rec letter from your current school and get another one from your future employer. Then think about why you can be a compelling candidate to offset your low GPA for law school.

The only thing is I feel like being a secondary school teach is unrelated to law, do you think it would be worth it?

And yeah my grammar is a big problem i am still working on it, thanks for the honesty!!

[Elston Gunn]

The only thing is I feel like being a secondary school teach is unrelated to law, do you think it would be worth it?

And yeah my grammar is a big problem i am still working on it, thanks for the honesty!!

I was a secondary school teacher before law school. It's better than being a KJD, at least.

[shump92]

work experience in general is often valued for professional school admissions. The typical assumption is that applicants for law and business school is that you have been somewhat removed from undergrad. On TLS work experience or WE is referred to as a soft for your application since it helps compliment the strength of your application but is not necessarily important like your LSAC GPA and LSAT are. So it doesn't really matter what you are doing as long as you are able to show that you did well with your job, it doesn't necessarily matter how closely related it is to law.

[PrezRand]

Masters.

[ihenry]

A ~3.0 is not a great position to be in running for T14 without a high LSAT. Since you are a rising senior you will have to take October LSAT and start your application soon. If you feel you need time to break, say, 170 or 173, for that reason alone you may need to postpone law school.

Btw, your grammar is horrible. I see from your previous posts (and user name) that you might be a Chinese, but that's not an excuse since you plan to work in the U. S. I would brush up grammar before proceeding with your chosen life endeavor, be it a teacher or a lawyer.